PHOTOGRAPHS BY CLEVELAND BORN AND RAISED, LOS ANGELES BASED ARTIST AND WRITER VINCENT JOHNSON.

WHEN I WAS A CHILD IN THE EARLY 1960’S. EVERY DAY ON THE RADIO I WOULD HEAR: THE GREATEST LOCATION IN THE NATION, AS CLEVELAND CALLS ITSELF.

WHAT I DID NOT KNOW WAS THAT CLEVELAND, PITTSBURGH, DETROIT, CHICAGO, WERE LARGELY BUILT TO BE THE AMERICAN EARLY 20TH CENTURY VERSIONS OF INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ENGLAND. THE MIDWEST WAS MANCHESTER, BIRMINGHAM AND LIVERPOOL.

PEOPLE USED TO CATCH FISH AT LAKE ERIE AND SELL THEM TO OTHER PEOPLE TO MAKE A FEW DOLLARS. CLEVELAND ACTUALLY HAD A REAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE GREAT LAKES. WE SOMETIMES WENT WALKING ON THE FROZEN POND OF THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART.

AS TEENAGERS, WHEN BORED WE WOULD WALK ALL THE WAY FROM FIVE-POINTS IN COLLINWOOD, TO DOWNTOWN AND LOOK AT THE MILITARY MONUMENTS IN PUBLIC SQUARE. THE CITY WAS NOT LIVELY IN ANY PART OF DOWNTOWN THEN. THERE WAS PROSTITUTION ON PROSPECT AVENUE, NEAR WHERE A GORGEOUS REMNANT OF ROW HOUSES STOOD AND ARE NO MORE.

DURING THE EARLY 1960’S, DOWNTOWN CLEVELAND WAS AMAZING WITH ITS CHRISTMAS LIGHTS AND WINDOW DISPLAYS. ALSO WHAT WAS GREAT FUN WAS WATCHING GHOULARDI AND ALSO HOULIHAN AND BIG CHUCK ON TELEVISION, AND THEIR COMIC ANTICS BEFORE SCREENING BAD HORROR FILMS THAT WERE SO MUCH FUN TO WATCH AS CHILDREN.

THERE USED TO BE THIS AMAZING ARCADE PLACE DOWNTOWN THAT HAD STRANGE AND IMPOSSIBLE TAXIDERMIED ANIMALS. THE CINCINATTI ROYALS BASKETBALL TEAM, FEATURING OSCAR ROBERTSON, PLAYED OCASSIONALLY IN DOWNTOWN CLEVELAND. ANOTHER FOND MEMORY I HAVE OF CLEVELAND IS THAT CONCORD GRAPES GREW ACROSS EVERYONE’S BACKYARD FENCE, AND THERE WERE APPLE AND PEAR TREES, CHERRY AND NUT TREES ALONG LAKEVIEW ROAD ON THE PROPERTY OF THE PRIVATE RESIDENCES.

THE CLEVELAND RIOTS DESTROYED AN ENTIRE AREA OF GLENVILLE. WE WATCHED FROM OUR APARTMENT FRONT WINDOW AS TANKS AND ARMED NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS ENTERED OUR NEIGHBORHOOD. A GAS STATION ACROSS THE STREET EXPLODED. WE HID IN THE BACK ROOM UNTIL MORNING. THERE WERE PEOPLE LOOTING THE STORES. GUNFIRE WAS HEARD. IN THE MORNING PART OF GLENVILLE WAS GONE. YET AS BAD AS IT LOOKED, IT NEVER LOOKED AS DEVASTATED AS CLEVELAND’S EAST SIDE LOOKS TODAY.

YET THERE IS GREAT HOPE BECAUSE OF THE TWO STELLAR HOSPITALS IN CLEVELAND, THAT ARE CAUSING HUGE CHANGES IN THE AREA SURROUNDING CASE WESTERN RESERVE AND UNIVERSITY CIRCLE, CLEVELAND’S STELLAR ARTS DISTRICT.

I TOOK These photographs during the beginning of summer of 2013. It is where I was born, enjoyed so much fun with my family and went to school. It was strange being there this time, as so much of the East Side of Cleveland has been destroyed. Yet there are many signs of new life in the middle of this part of town, as one sees near the hospital district hundreds of brand new homes not far from empty lots. I learned that The Lake Effect did do much greater damage to Cleveland’s East Side while the West Side was protected from the worst of the weather system. Yet still it is strange to see how the West Side is basically intact from the point of its architectural integrity, including apartment buildings and an amazing array of home styles that also can be found on Cleveland’s East Side, but often in a state of complete distress or devastation. My taking these photographs is a way for me to grasp that so many decades have passed since the 1960’s, and the world I knew as a child has nearly vanished.

My fascination with Cleveland’s myriad of vernacular architectural private properties is also a strong element in my wish to document Cleveland. One thing that struck me when taking pictures there in June was how as a car driving adult touring Cleveland, I was seeing so much more of the city than I ever had as a child. I remembered the countless A-frame and Two-flat houses, but had never seen the gigantic boarding houses, and had mostly not seen most of the row house styles. I do distinctly recall there being an awesome row house block on Prospect avenue, which I did not see on my trip but would like to find.

I decided to go into ClevelandMemory.com and get some pictures. I’m focusing on Champlain Avenue, since it completely disappeared as a result of the Terminal development. This is the area of the Terminal development, before it became known, in 1916:But let’s turn to the view that made otherwise-proud Clevelander ashamed of their city in 1922 (think of this view as the same some proud Clevelander not wanting to show Jacobs’ parking lot on Public Square)…..The street directly behind those building is Champlain, a street that went west down the hill from Ontario to Columbus Road. This is at the intersection of Ontario, showing the backside of the buildings that faced Public Square in the shot above….Showing more of the backside of the buildings that faced Public Square…..Just west of those buildings were these, in the 200-block of Champlain, which had outlived their usefulness. Not many people were using horses any more in the 1920s:And stepping farther west down Champlain to the intersection of West 3rd Street, we look east again toward Ontario…..In the shot above, see the man in the foreground? Behind him is what was considered as perhaps the greatest architectural loss from the terminal development. This was the American Telephone & Telegraph exchange/switching building at Champlain and West 3rd, which was replaced by the art deco beauty on Huron which briefly became Cleveland’s tallest scraper before the Terminal Tower was finished, but served as the model for the Daily Planet in the Superman comic strips. So perhaps this building sacrificed itself for pop culture immortality….Another architectural loss was the Central Police Station at Champlain and West 6th. It was replaced by an art deco gem on Payne Avenue, which unfortunately was demolished only a few years ago…..

Some buildings were already demolished by the time this picture was taken, revealing the back sides of buildings in the 700 block fronting Long Avenue, another “lost street” south of and parallel to West Superior….

Making our way farther down the hill in terms of topography and building conditions were these in the 800-900 block of Champlain…

At first glance this probably doesn’t look like a sloped road, but look at the angle of the buildings against the street/sidewalk surfaces. This view is looking east from Canal Road which ended at Champlain Avenue….

And, finally, at the bottom of Champlain hill was this view at Columbus Road, which climbed up the hill to the left to West Superior. This was one of the oldest commercial districts of Cleveland, dating from the heyday of the Ohio Canal…..

And if you’re still having a hard time picturing where Champlain Avenue ran, this picture reveals it because the Public Square buildings shown at the start of this post are gone, revealing Champlain behind. Ontario is at left…..

By the end of 1924, nearly all buildings were gone and the excavation for the Cleveland Union Terminal Group was well underway. The last building to be demolished was the AT&T building (shown earlier and seen at right, below) at Champlain and West 3rd. The cable ducts that ran below Champlain are seen extending west from the old AT&T building, which was kept intact until the new AT&T building (north of Progressive Field today) was operational…..

And that is a tour from the 1920s from the neighborhood that predated the Terminal Group. It truly was a neighborhood left over from the 1800s, its location to the transit hub on Public Square and its accessibility to nearby railroad lines was why this holdover from the canal era was vulnerable. It was ultimately replaced with this……

« Last Edit: January 03, 2012, 02:38:34 AM by KJP »

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“There should be no more reason for a motorist who is passing through a city to slow down then there is for an airplane which is passing over it.” Norman Bel Geddes, author of the 1940 book ‘Magic Motorways’ & designer of General Motors’ Futurama exhibit at 1939 New York World’s Fair

Case and CSU have a lovely collection of old photographs of Cleveland before its “peak” and during. Thought id post a few of my favorites:A 1930s view of the city from Detroit-Superior bridge. I think at this time the subway trollies ran inside the structure
The Academy of Music in the 1880s1899 Streetcar Strike on Lower EuclidThe Cleveland Ship Building Company in 1890One of the many mansions on Millionaire’s Row Euclid Avenue 1890The Blizzard of 1913Rockefeller himself in, yes, East ClevelandThe Central Market on East 4th Street in 1946The Cuyahoga Building in 1893The riverbank “The Flats” back in 1870Cleveland Municipal Stadium 1931Millionaire’s RowEuclid BeachFirst Baptist Church on East 9th in 1875Public Square in 1910Public Square celebration of Germany’s Victory over France in the Franco Prussian War in 1871Haymarket on Ontario Rd in 1930A Lorain-Carnegie Bridge pillar and their craftsmenAh streetcar suburb in the 1920sThe May Company Building in 1941The Feast of the Assumption in Little Italy 1950 (wow its still the same today!)Public Square facing the terminal in 1929

Artist touching up a mural in 1938 (wow holding a cig and messy hair, again, so little has changed haha)

1872. Hough incorporated into Cleveland, which doubled in size in 10 years. Millionaire’s Row built on Euclid Avenue.

1890s. Two electric streetcars run down Hough & Euclid Avenues. League Park built at E. 66th and Lexington as home of the Cleveland Spiders (now the Cleveland Indians). Eliza Bryant built the first “Retirement home for Colored Persons,” later moved into Hough. Area filled with single family homes and exclusive schools like Beaumont School for Girls, University School, Notre Dame Academy, and East High School. Houses of worship built include St. Agnes Parish and Congregational Church.

1920s. Apartment buildings constructed as wealthy residents migrate to the Heights to avoid air pollution from their own factories. Millionaires destroy their homes before moving out.

1930s. Hough fills with middle class immigrants and laborers. Homes take in boarders or split into multi-family dwellings.

1950s. Urban renewal and highway development force African-Americans from Central into Hough, increasing from 14% to 75% of its population. Realtors threaten reduced home values; Polish, Irish, and Spanish-speaking immigrants move out.

1960s. Mounting racial tension caused by deteriorating and overcrowded housing owned by whites and occupied by blacks. (Tip: Don’t be a slumlord).

July 18-23, 1966. Hough Riots cause massive property damage and four deaths until the National Guard takes over. A grand jury ruled that the Communist Party organized the uprising.

1970s. Middle class families flee the neighborhood while activists work hard to rebuild with little outside support. Religious communities collaborate to provide food and other social service programs. Nonprofits like Hough Multipurpose Center, Fatima Family Center, Famicos Foundation, and Hough Salvation Army are formed.